Melamine boxes with MDF or thermofoil doors, ordered by the hundred and fitted across whole subdivisions, hold no grain to restore. Paint is the only route open to them, and the job is priced by piece count.
That describes most cabinet painting work in this town. The largest block of housing here went up between 2006 and 2010, and Beaty, Clarke, Harrison and Scott are full of first-owner families reaching the point where the kitchen looks tired and the house is nowhere near ready to sell.
Builder Kitchens Take Cabinet Painting Because They Are Not Wood
What arrived in these houses was a cost-engineered kitchen. The carcass is melamine-faced particleboard, the shelves are the same board with edge tape, the drawer boxes are often melamine too, and only the doors and fronts vary.
Those doors fall into three groups. Routed MDF with a moulded profile, painted or foil-wrapped at the factory. Plain MDF slab, usually white or a maple-look finish. And thermofoil, a thin vinyl skin heat-pressed over a shaped MDF blank, sold through the 2000s as a maple or espresso look-alike.
None of the three has real grain beneath the surface. Stripping them reveals brown fibreboard, so refinishing in the sense used on wood is off the table. Cabinet painting is the only way the colour changes, and done properly it leaves a harder film than the factory ever applied. Wood doors in the older parts of town have a second option, described under cabinet refinishing.
Door Count Drives A Subdivision Cabinet Painting Quote, Not Wall Length
Every piece is handled the same number of times regardless of size, so the count is what cabinet painting labour is made of. A 24-inch door and a 12-inch door each come off, get degreased twice, filled, sanded, primed and sprayed on both faces, then go back on adjusted hinges.
Milton plans push counts above the Ontario average. A large L or U kitchen with an island, a bank of pot drawers and a butler's pantry off the dining room lands at 35 to 45 pieces, where an early 1980s kitchen in Timberlea sits at 18 to 24. That gap separates a $3,000 cabinet painting job from a $7,000 one.
Peeling foil is a separate named line on the quote. Stripping a lifting vinyl skin back to the MDF blank is slow handwork, quoted per door rather than buried in a total, so nobody discovers it halfway through. Cabinet painting over a lifting skin is not offered at any price, because the skin keeps lifting underneath.
Whole Streets Share One Builder's Door, Which Helps The Quote
Milton's suburban housing is unusually single-developer, so one door profile repeats down an entire street and often across a whole neighbourhood. Seeing one kitchen means knowing what the next twelve hold.
That is a practical cabinet painting advantage rather than a talking point. Prep time on a known profile can be estimated tightly, the primer is settled before the visit, and the quote carries less padding for the unknown. Colour goes the same way, because the same white on the same door in the same neighbourhood is something already watched through a full cure.
The Four Questions Subdivision Owners Ask About Cabinet Painting
Will it peel off a laminate door is the first. Cabinet painting holds on an intact door degreased first and primed under a waterborne bonding product formulated for slick faces, which needs three to four days before full adhesion. Peeling follows when that primer is skipped or a lifting skin gets coated.
Everyone on my street has this kitchen is the second, and it cuts both ways. Ordinary doors they are, yet sprayed warm white, greige or sage above a contrasting island stops reading as builder-issued at once. Two-tone kitchens and island painting covers the pairing.
Should I just replace it is the third. Cabinet painting a subdivision kitchen comes to $2,500 to $5,500 in the usual case and $6,000 to $9,000 on the biggest plans, set beside $15,000 to $40,000 and up for new cabinetry, and these boxes are square, dry and serviceable. Market ranges are all those figures are, with the quote settling the real one.
Delamination At The Range And Swollen Doors Under The Sink
The fourth question is about damage, and cabinet painting has an honest answer to it. Foil lifts above the range and beside the dishwasher because heat and steam attack the adhesive, and MDF swells at an unsealed bottom edge where a slow supply line has wetted the cabinet floor for a year.
Swollen board never comes back. A puffed bottom rail or a blown corner means that door is replaced, then carried through the cabinet painting with everything else so it disappears into the run at a sliver of what a fresh set costs. Once a dozen have gone, fitting new doors to sound boxes answers better. Cabinet refacing and door replacement sets that route out.
Have The Subdivision Kitchen Tallied And Quoted In Writing
Give us the address and a piece count happens in the room, with doors above the range and under the sink examined before anything gets promised. Each stripped door is written onto the cabinet painting quote separately. Call +1 (289) 206-6908, describe the kitchen here or head back to the whole service list.
Builder-Grade Subdivision Cabinet Painting Questions
Will paint peel off laminate or thermofoil doors?
Not when the door is intact. Each face is degreased, scuffed and coated with a waterborne bonding primer made for slick surfaces, which needs three to four days to reach full adhesion. Peeling happens when that primer is skipped or a lifting skin is painted over.
Why does door count matter more than kitchen size?
Every door and drawer front is handled the same number of times, whatever its size. Each one comes off, is degreased, filled, sanded, primed and sprayed on both faces. A large plan with an island can reach 35 to 45 pieces, while a smaller kitchen sits near 18 to 24.
What happens to doors that have swollen or peeled?
Swollen board does not recover, so that door is replaced and sprayed with the rest so it blends into the run. Lifting foil is stripped back to the MDF blank by hand. Each stripped door is its own line on the quote, so nothing is discovered halfway through.